LECTURE
FOUR
1
STRING HANDLING IN
JAVA
Java implement strings as objects of type String.
It belongs to java.lang.
Once a String object is created, it is not possible to
change the characters that comprise the string.
When a modifiable string is needed, java provides two
options:
1.java.lang.StringBuffer
2.java.lang.StringBuilder
2
THE STRING
CONSTRUCTOR
1. String()- Example: String s = new String();
2. String (char chars[])
Example:
char chars[] = {‘a’, ‘b’, ’c’};
String s=new String (chars);
3. String( char chars[], int startIndex, int numChars);
Example:
char chars[] = {‘a’, ‘b’, ’c’, ‘d’, ‘e’, ‘f’};
String s = new String (chars, 2, 3);
3
THE STRING
CONSTRUCTOR
4. String (String str);
Example:
char c[] = {‘j’, ‘a’, ‘v’, ‘a’};
String s1 = new String (c);
System.out.println (s1);
4
String Length:
int length();
Example:
char st [ ] = {‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’};
String a = new String (st);
System.out.println ( a.length());
Creating String from String Literals:
Example:
String s1 = “abcd”;
String object is created for every string literals.
System.out.println (“abc” . length());
5
STRING CONCATENATION
Java allows only + operator to be applied on string, which concatenates
of two strings.
Example:
String age = “9”;
String s = “He is “ + age + “ years old.”;
System.out.println (s);
The compiler will convert an operand to it’s string equivalent whenever
the other operand of the + is an instance of String.
Example:
int age = 9;
String s = “He is “ + age + “ years old.”;
System.out.println (s);
6
DATA CONVERSION USING
VALUEOF()
It converts data from its internal format into a human-
readable format.
Static overloaded method within String for built-in types
and for type Object.
static String valueOf (double num)
static String valueOf( Object ob)
During concatenation operation, it is automatically
called.
All of the simple types are converted into their String
representation.
For any object valueOf() automatically calls the object’s
toString() method. 7
TOSTRING() METHOD
It is defined by Object.
Every class implements toString() because every class is subclass of Object.
General form: String toString()
It returns a String object that appropriately describe any object.
Example:
class TT Output: a= 100
class Test
{
int a; {
TT() { a=100;} public static void main (String args[])
public String toString() {
{
TT b = new TT();
return “a= “+a;
System.out.println(b);
} 8
} }
}
CHARACTER
EXTRACTION
1. charAt ():
char ch;
ch = “abc”.charAt(1); ch<-’b’
9
STRING COMPARISON
1. equals ()
boolean equals( String str)
-str is the String object being compared with the
invoking String object.
-Case sensitive.
2. equalsIgnoreCase ()
boolean equalsIgnoreCase( String str)
-str is the String object being compared with the
invoking String object.
-Not case sensitive.
10
STRING COMPARISON
Example:
String s1 = “Hello”;
String s2 = “HELLO”;
System.out.println ( s1 + “ equals “ +s2 + s1.equals(s2));
System.out.println ( s1 + “ equals “ +s2 + s1.equalsIgnoreCase(s2));
Output:
Hello equals HELLO false
Hello equals HELLO true
11
STRING COMPARISON
. StartsWith () and endsWith ()
Example:
“Football”. endsWith ( “ball”); --- returns true
“Football”. startsWith (“wood”); ----returns false
12
STRING COMPARISON
5. int compareTo (String str)
- less than 0: if invoking string is less than str
greater than 0: if invoking string is greater than str
0: if equal
- case sensitive.
13
EQUALS () VERSUS ==
equals () method compares the characters within a String
object.
The == operator compares two object references to see whether
they refer to the same object.
Example:
String s1 = “hello”;
String s2 = new String(s1);
System.out.println(s1 + “ equals “+s2 + “ ”+ s1.equals(s2));
System.out.println(s1 + “ equals “+s2 + “ ”+ (s1==s2));
Output:
hello equals hello true
14
hello equals hello false
